Another Bad Day for Justin Townes Earle

Sorry I've been outta commission for a while. Thanksgiving caught me unawares. I promise I'll make it up to you, though. These past couple of weeks I have been listening to a lot of music (especially on my long walks around Manhattan this past weekend). So here goes the next installment:


I find that there are a lot of older songs, especially country songs, that have really fun, upbeat tunes and rythyms, but have depressing-as-hell lyrics (Johnny Cash's "Train of Love" comes to mind). Maybe it's spurred on by a desire to find the silver lining in the situation. Maybe it's more of a desire to mask one's feelings. Maybe it stems from a musical tradition--- traditional Irish folk? Blues? Whatever the reason, a LOT of singers have mastered this marriage of sad lyrics + happy tune. And, Justin Townes Earle, one of my favorite alt-country-folk-rock-whatever-genre-you-wanna-box-him-in singer, has revealed the fact that he is pretty darn good at this as well.

He's feelin' down. I'm feelin' his style.  

His new album, entitled "Harlem River Blues" is amazing, and the title track is what kills me (no pun intended). It's a really fun song, and if you ignore the lyrics, quite uppity. But, of course, when you listen to what he's actually saying, it's kind of a downer. The opening lines?


"Lord, I'm goin' uptown to the Harlem River to drown/
Dirty water gonna cover me over and I'm not gonna make a sound." 

Here is the GOOD SONG: Harlem River Blues


It's clearly about a guy about to go drown himself in the Harlem River, although it's a little unusual as he seems to think that what he's doing is actually *good* for his soul. He wants to avoid trouble in the future by simply killing himself off right now while he's still "good in his grace." Interesting. Doesn't convince me, though, that it's the best idea.
Honestly, this sort of song doesn't really surprise me, coming from Justin Townes Earle. A little background: He's the son of the famous country singer Steve Earle. His middle name is a nod to another famous country singer, Townes Van Zandt (who is so awesome, by the way). He was raised in Nashville, although now he lives in the East Village (near where I was raised, which is I'm sure the reason for his move up north). He got super into drugs in his youth and then got clean. He's on tour right now, although part of his tour had to be postponed as he was arrested in Indianapolis on charges of "battery, public intoxication, and resisting law enforcement." Hmmmm...  Now you see why I'm not so surprised by his happy/sad songs. 
Apparently he decided to back into rehab after that incident. 


He's so freaking talented, I hope he gets himself together and keeps making amazing music, though, because the music world can't have people like him getting arrested all the time. 


If you like this song, you might also like:


Steve Earle (you know, the Dad)
Townes Van Zandt (you know, the namesake)
David Rawlings Machine
Old Crow Medicine Show
The Felice Brothers (I believe he's toured with them)
Those Darlins
Langhorne Slim (I believe he's also toured with him)


BUY HIS MUSIC HERE: tasty music from JTE


Over and out,
Anna


P.S. I feel obligated to mention that his song "Can't Hardly Wait" (no connection to the movie), from his earlier album "Midnight at the Movies" is my NUMBER ONE top played song on my itunes. It's freaking fantastic. No hint of suicidal tendencies on this one, I might add. It's actually a Replacements cover, not an original.
Here is a nice, pared-down, very earnest live version of it, dedicated to the late, great Christ Feinstein, bass-player for Ryan Adams and the Cardinals: Can't Hardly Wait

Bang Bang Bang!

So Recommendation month continues on the AGSIHTF... This week, though, I'm kinda cheating. I know Last.fm isn't really a friend of mine, but I just had to give this website credit for introducing me to so much good music.

The GOOD SONG for this week is FRANKIE'S GUN by the Felice Brothers (I know, I know I just posted about another brothers group, but this one is different I swear).
I don't remember exactly how I came across them on Last.fm, to be honest, but at this point it doesn't matter. They are FANTASTIC!
And what's weirder is that they are from Palenville, New York, which is about 20 minutes from my own house in upstate NY. Palenville is pretty much a nothing little town, so I give it kudos for producing these badasses.

Ok boys I know you're from the sticks, but
it's not THAT hard to find a shower.

How are they badasses, you might ask? Ok, example of their badassery: in 2008 they played at the Newport Folk Festival (of Bobby D infamy) and a huge rainstorm cut off their power. Instead of wussing out and waiting for the power to come back or just cancel, they played a totally acoustic show, jumping off the stage, and mud-puddling it out to the soaking wet and happy crowd.

The band consists of David Turbeville on drums/vocals, Christmas (that is his real name... he used to be a traveling dice player) on bass, and the two brothers Ian (vocals/guitar/piano) and James Felice (accordion/piano/organ), with occasional additions of washboard, horn section, and fiddle. Another brother, Simone Felice, used to be part of the band as well, but left amicably to start his own thang called The Duke and the King (characters from Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn). Although they hail from the Catskills, they moved to NY a few years ago and started playing their ramshackle music in the subway stations. Since then, they've made it big(ger).

Frankie's Gun in particular is a great song. Sounds like the story of a guy in an old-school Mafia drug or booze run, who is taking money off the top to buy his mom and sweetheart nice things. I like the line:

"I saw a man hit my mom one time, really
I hurt him so damn bad
I had to hide in Jersey."


Here is a link to a great live version as well: Frankie's Gun Live. Yay for accordions! I am going to go see them play live at the Rock n Roll Hotel here in DC this coming Friday (the 22nd), along with Adam Haworth Stephens. Nice! Anyone in the area is welcome to join me.

BUY THEIR MUSIC HERE: Felice Bros

If you like them you might also like:

Bob Dylan
Pete Molinari
Avett Brothers
The Duke & The King
Old Crow Medicine Show (they toured with them!)
Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band (they also toured with them!)

Over and out,
Anna

Bluegrass and Tea Leaves

Bluegrass music has been around long enough now for musicians to mess around with it. Play with it. Have some fun. Combine it with rock n' roll. Hip-hop. Gospel. Country. Folk. Classical.

But bluegrass combined with traditional Chinese music? I believe Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet are the first ones to brave that attempt.

And WOW! Does it work!

Abigail understands that liking strange toys is a
 prerequisite for appreciating Asian cultures.

A little explanation: Abigail Washburn is a banjo player and singer from Illinois. Straight-up American. Her bluegrass group called Uncle Earl was a big hit on the scene. However, she spent enough time in living in China after college to learn Mandarin and begin recording in it post-Uncle Earl. In 2004 she went on tour in Tibet with the uber-accomplished members of her quartet, which includes Béla Fleck on banjo, Casey Driessen on violin, and Ben Sollee on cello.

The GOOD SONG for today is Kangding Quingge (Old Timey Dance Party), which is such a fun song. The cello is fantastic. And then she starts singing in Chinese, accompanied by a banjo! It starts to get funkier as you go on. I wish I had something to say about the lyrics... but I have absolutely no idea what she's saying. She's got a nice voice though. 


BUY HER MUSIC HERE: Abigail Washburn!

If you like this song, you might also like:

Joanna Newsom

Chatham County Line

Béla Fleck

Uncle Earl

Chinese music???

Over and out,

Anna